Lebanon will begin enforcing a night-time ban on motorcycles across the country at the start of the new year, the Interior Ministry announced Friday, citing security concerns.A ministry statement said that bikers will be forbidden from riding between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. every day to avoid security incidents. The decision will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.Motorcycles will remain banned in Sidon all times of the day, the statement added, in line with a years-old ban in the southern city.The ministry had issued a similar decision in June which was limited to Beirut, but the curfew was never enforced, largely due to a series of meetings held between ministry and security officials, and motorcycle activists.The decree announced Friday states that motorcycles belonging to any government institution or diplomatic delegation are exempt from the ban. It also allows bikers working for certain private companies, restaurants, media, photographers and paper distribution companies to ride at night, as long as they carry their credentials.For those who do not fit under any of those categories, the ministry could issue special permits for them if they file a report proving that they require one.The decree may spark a new round of protests by bikers who complained earlier this year that the state was infringing upon their right to ride, and rejected the notion that motorcycle riders were responsible for crime.In 2009, then-Interior Minister Ziad Baroud issued a decree banning all motorcycles from riding in Beirut and its suburbs between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m., unless they held a state-issued permit to justify their need to use a bike after the curfew. His decision came after a group of men on bikes stabbed to death one person and injured four others in the Beirut suburb of Ain al-Rummaneh.However, in 2011 Baroud's successor Marwan Charbel changed the law, allowing anyone to secure a permit to ride at any time of the day.That decision was then scrapped altogether a couple years later, allowing anyone to ride at any time of the day without a permit. - See more at: http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Dec-26/282261-lebanon-to-impose-night-time-motorcycle-ban-across-the-country.ashx#sthash.rwd7hYFs.dpuf

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